Looking for an alternative to Peanut Butter? Here it is! I can’t rave enough about how good this is. Even the toddler kept coming up to me as I was making it saying, ‘num-num’.

It was easy-peasy in the kitchen and SO much cheaper to make myself. It almost makes me want to shake my finger at all those companies charging outrageous prices. I saw a nut butter going for 21.oo at whole foods the other day. seriously.

I bought these pecans in bulk at Costco for 15.00 per 2 lb. I used about 1/3 of the bag (3 cups) so my tub of pecan butter cost me roughly 5.00$.

Is my favorite muffin recipe ever. It is the result of a very happy accident that happened in my kitchen several weeks ago. And since I had a seriously overburdened supply of dates in my pantry, it has been a new snack favorite around my house.

It is grain and sugar free. Hallelujah. Intestinal and Blood Glucose friendly. They are plenty flavorful with just the right hint of sweetness. Dates, even though they are packed with sweetness, are relatively low on the Glycemic Index scale. See here.

Here’s The Skinny:

Three Grated Carrots (or one small bag shredded carrots)

15 pitted dates (I used Medjool)

3/4 Cup Almond Butter

2 tsp vanilla

4 eggs

1/2 cup coconut oil (liquid–nuke it)

1/3 cup coconut flour

1/3 cup almond flour

1 tsp Tapioca flour (or 1 tsp baking powder)

1 tsp baking soda

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp salt.

Mix first four ingredients (carrots, dates, almond butter, vanilla) in food processor. Blend one min until even consistency. In large bowl, whisk 4 eggs. Add carrot/date mixture and melted coconut oil to eggs and stir until well mixed. In separate bowl, combine all dry ingredients. Add dry to wet, mix well. Fill lined muffin tins 3/4 full. Bake in preheated 350 degree oven. 10 minutes or until slightly springy on top. Don’t over bake these babies. When in doubt, take em out!

Love, Love, Love this salad. A couple of weeks ago a friend brought this gorgeous green goodness over for dinner. She is a-mazing in the kitchen so I knew it would be delicious. She was so thoughtful that she let me keep the leftovers (score!) and shared her recipe with me. I recreated it this week and think that it is too good to keep to myself.

It is as easy as it is delicious. Here’s what you need:

Kale

Mango

Walnuts

Olive Oil

Really the amounts can be tailored to your liking. However, here is what I used:

Sometimes dessert is just necessary. Though the sugar may not be. For sure there are occasions (or just a regular day) when a traditional sugar-full, dairy-full, unhealthy mess is totally in order and undeniably ‘worth it’. But more often than not, I find that I would enjoy a ‘treat’ and don’t want the food hangover that comes with the former. So, here is a recipe for these dog-days-of-summer when a cool treat fits the bill but gross food doesn’t.

Dairy and Sugar Free Deliciousness.

Here’s what you need:

3 Ripe Bananas

1/4 Cup Almond Butter

3 Tbsp Cold Coffee (more or less depending on the consistency you are aiming for) start with less and add as desired.

1 tsp ground coffee

1/4 tsp vanilla

How To:

Unwrap Bananas, Halve them and stick in freezer until frozen solid.

Dump frozen bananas and remaining ingredients into food processor.

Blend until all bananas are creamed.

Voila, Ice cream.

This recipe is just a base. I think there are so many variations and ways you can tweak this to make your favorite. I would love to know what you try and how it works out….. Enjoy!

This day started off with a fizzle. yuck. sometimes after a work weekend monday is completely lackluster.

The house was a mess, the kiddos overtired and there was NO coffee in the house. not even decaf. see what i mean? ugh.

I somehow made it until 2:15 when my pre-planned sitter (a stroke of momentary genius) showed up to let me off the hook for a couple of hours. I knew I needed my workout. really, truly and honestly. while my body wasn’t necessary excited about throwing around big weights I figured it would be a good moving metaphor for what i needed. to shrug some things off.

it worked. i worked out hard. we had an AMRAP 20. (as many rounds as possible in 20 min) of:

5 Cleans (85#)

10 Box Jumps (20inch)

15 Knees to Elbows

10 Wall Balls (14#)

I managed to squeak out 5 rounds + 1 set Cleans and Knees to Elbow.

AMRAP’s are sort of mentally difficult for me as I don’t have a good way to work towards goal. Lucky for me, hubs had done this workout earlier in the day and given me a score to beat.

Now onto the delicious stuff. A couple of weeks ago after one of our Garage WOD’s, my friend

Hayden offered to stay and cook lunch for us. She is one of the thriftiest girls I know and this ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS DISH is a prime example of how to eat and cook paleo for a family on a budget. When you have 3 kids, as she and I both do, cost is usually a consideration. A large portion of our budget goes to food.

Anyway, I finally got around to recreating her recipe this evening and it was just as fab-tastic the second time around. Even my husband claimed that I’d ‘done good.’ Though I am considering that the best thing about this recipe may actually not be the taste but rather the effort (or lack thereof)… this recipe is every bit as easy as it is good.

So, here’s the skinny:

Ingredients (which I doubled for my family and we ate. it. all)

1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken thighs (trim the fat with a pair of kitchen scissors–if you don’t have some already, here’s your excuse)

Trim fat from chicken, cut thighs in half and place in a large Ziploc bag. Dump in Curry, Paprika, Salt and Pepper. Seal bag and ‘toss’ ingredients. Massage spices into chicken and refrigerate for several hours or up to overnight.

Next heat Coconut Oil in Skillet (i used cast iron, but anything will do) over medium heat. Once hot, add chicken pieces and cook approximately 4 minutes each side. However because I am ridiculously grossed out by the idea of undercooked meat I took mine out several times to check the center.

this was so good, i had to physically restrain myself. ok no i didn’t. totally ate it.

After I cooked my chicken, removed pieces from skillet and placed them in a saute pan (though you could use same pan, mine just gummed up on the bottom) and added my frozen veggies.

Now that the chicken and the frozen veggies are in one pan, add coconut milk and simmer over low heat for 10 minutes.

I can’t tell you how many times I have fed this lovely vegetable to a sworn okra Hater, and watched them eat their words. Grilling takes this often overlooked southern veggie to a new level. It minimizes the stringy-ness (the characteristic that gets the most complaints) and really highlights the flavor. My nine-year-old thinks they’re better than french fries. Here’s how to do it.

Step 1:

Soak Wooden Skewers in Water for 15 minutes. Then spear okra through skewer horizontally. It’s so easy even a nine-year-old with her eyes crossed and tongue sticking out can do it.

Concentration

Step 2: Lay out on tray and brush both sides with Olive Oil. Salt.

yum

Step 3: Place directly on grill. Rotate both sides until lightly blackened. It should look like this:

Who said pizza is not just for breakfast anymore? Now, there are cookies!

No seriously, I have been wanting to try a breakfast ‘cookie’ recipe for a while. A coworker of mine has a recipe similar to this that she loves making for her grandson as a healthy treat. Hers has Oats so I did a little Paleofying voodoo and came up with this. It is a cross between a soft cookie and banana bread. And, i think, a nice a alternative for a day when you’ve had it up to here with eggs for breakfast. Yes, yes, i know starting my day with dried fruit is a blood sugar bombshell but maybe if I keep moving in the morning my tissues will just eat up all that extra glucose. mmmm, mmmm. Pair it with a cup of black of coffee and lawdy, lawdy, thems some good eats.

Have I ever told you that I love my hubs? Well he must love me too cause after a looooong day at the hospital, a very tired and hungry nurse came home to this dinner.

He basically adapted his Old Chicken Parmesan Recipe to make it grain and dairy free, all while using Coconut Oil the SuperFat. This is quite possibly one of the most delicious dinners ever. Ever. Here’s what He did.

2 chicken breasts split in half (thickness) and pounded out.

Mix together in a shallow bowl:

1/4 cup almond flour, salt, pepper, oregano, garlic powder.

Dredge each breast half in one beaten egg.

Coat each side of breast with dry mixture.

Pan fry in coconut oil (enough to coat bottom of skillet). He uses cast iron–and will not entertain the idea of anything else (however, I am sure any pan will do just fine.)

In small casserole dish place a thin layer of marinara of your choice.

I have been wanting to do this since my Whole 30. It just sounded good. I generally don’t do cereal for breakfast. I learned several years ago that I had to eat at least 3 times the serving amount (seriously it’s like 3/4 of a cup… whatever) of even the hearty kind of grain cereal to fill me up. And even then I would be ready for lunch in two hours. It wasn’t rocket science. Adding protein just did the trick for me. I learned that useful tidbit sometime in my early twenties, around the time when I started having to actually get up in the mornings. Before that, who knows. May have been beer for breakfast.

So today i tried a high protein, high fat ‘cereal’ mix with unsweetened Almond Milk (MUST read the labels on this one). It was delicious. A really nice alternative to eggs or almond butter. I can see this being very handy in August when turning on your stove in the South is a sin.